The Laurel Community Center Games Club has sessions every Thursday starting at 6 PM, lasting until 9 PM. The Community Center is located at 7901 Cypress Street, Laurel MD 20707. Phone: (301)-497-0300. The Laurel Community Center Games Club is affiliated with the Games Club of Maryland ("GCOM"), which has over 30 locations in Maryland and the surrounding states and the District of Columbia.

Contributors

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Eight for this week's session: Tim, Mike, Doug, Greg, Patrick, Rembert, Helen and myself. We played a total of three games: Lords of Waterdeep, 10 Days in Asia and CO 2.

Lords of Waterdeep was a four-player, extremely close game: Six points from top to bottom, and an absolute tie for first. Mike and Doug, each with 110, each tied on money, shared the win. Patrick (105) and Tim (104) were not that far behind.

10 Days in Asia was won by Patrick. Tim, Doug and Helen were also in this game.

Finally, Greg, Rembert and I played CO 2. To speed things along, we played without the lobby cards which made the game a bit more challenging as we were tight money, cubes or expertise at different points in the game. Greg, who was playing for the first time, came away the winner with 99 points to 95 for me, and Rembert not far behind at 85.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

A group of nine in attendance this week: Mike, John B, Doug, Patrick, Eric, Ben, Helen, Tim (back from a trip to Japan) and myself. Games played: Piece o Cake, Power Grid-China, Stone Age and Cloud Nine.

Piece o Cake was a three-player, won by Doug (45) to 37 for Patrick and 33 for yours truly (John W).

We split into two groups for most of the rest of the session. One group played Power Grid, using the China map. This game was a four-player, and a very close one as it came down to the money tiebreaker to break a three-way tie for first. Winner was Eric (17 cities, 75 cash), ahead of John B (17/26), Mike (16/8) with Ben (10 cities) bringing up the rear.

Stone Age was a five-player using the new expansion but without the tusks and related new cards/materials. Helen was the winner, with a score of 126. Others: John W 117, Doug 108, Patrick 97, Tim 86.

Finally, some of us stuck around for one more game: Cloud Nine. This was a win for Eric, with 51 points. Order of finish for the rest of us: Doug 2nd, Helen 3rd, John B 4th, John W fifth and last.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Attendance of ten for this week: Ben, Mike, Alex, John B, Neville, Greg, Doug, Helen, Rembert and myself, no newcomers to the club this time around. Four games were played: Piece o Cake, Seasons, Poseidon and Timeline.

Piece o Cake was the quick warmup game while waiting for everyone to show up. Five of us took part. Final scores: John W 32, Mike 29, Alex 25, John B 23, Ben 21. First one-two for the host/co-host combination in quite some time.

We then split into two groups for the two main games of the evening, which were Seasons and Poseidon. Seasons was a four-player, won by Neville who scored a nice come from behind victory as Greg, the early leader, plummeted to last. Final score counts were Neville 115, John W 103, Doug 100, Greg 76.

The four of us were joined by Rembert for a couple of quick games of Timeline. Greg and I tied for the win in the first game, each going five for five. I also managed to get five in a row the second game as well, obviously the best I have ever done at the game, and I have to credit some fairly easy questions plus a few lucky guesses never hurts.

The five-player Poseidon game (Ben, Mike, Alex, John B and Helen) never quite made it to the finish. No word on who was winning, but the game was picked up around the start of the final stage when the larger boats became available.

News from John B regarding a special session of the Beltsville club: Saturday March 16th, from 9 AM to 4 PM, emphasis on teaching gateway games to attract newcomers to the hobby.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

A very good turnout out this week after a two-week hiatus due to Thanksgiving. We had two newcomers, Tom and Korey, along with Neville (who has missed most of the sessions this fall due to another commitment on Thursdays) plus Alex, Mike, Ben, Jack, Rembert, Doug G, John B, Jay, Helen and myself for a total attendance of 13, our best in several months. Five games were played: Power Grid: First Sparks, Doctor Who: The Card Game, Automobile, TransAmerica and Lords of Waterdeep.

First game to finish was Power Grid: First Sparks. The winner was Doug, who won the race to 13 ahead of Jay (11), John B (10) and Ben (9).

Tom, one of the two newcomers, took the Doctor Who card game, with 25 points, ahead of Mike (20), Korey (16) and Rembert (8). My guess is Tom and Korey had both played before.

This same group then played TransAmerica. Scores were Tom 12, Korey 8, Mike 6 and Rembert 2 or maybe it's minus -6 for Mike and -2 for Rembert (can't tell from the scoresheets). Good showing by Tom to go two-for-two in his first two games at the club.

The Automobile game was the longest, an intense brain-burner. I managed to win with a score of 4,640 with Alex (at 4,200) in second followed by Neville (3,800) and Jack (3,120). Neville was quick to point out that a different tile draw at the end would have moved him into second ahead of Alex but, with a low number of 2 for the luxury cars, he was forced to take two losses instead of earning $400 for the cars. Overall, all of us played a bit too conservatively and didn't really push the envelope except in the final turn on those luxury cars.

Final game to finish was Lords of Waterdeep. Jay, who seems to have a good record at this game, took the win with 147 points followed by Doug (131), John B (112), Helen (111) and Ben (101). Good to see everyone score over 100 in this game.

Again, very pleased with the turnout this week, let's keep it up for the rest of 2012!